Black hole sun

«Failure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown.»

If Deutsche Bank is correct, the economy will have shrunk by nearly 9pc before the end of this year. This is the sort of level that stokes popular revolt.

The implications are obvious. Berlin is not going to rescue Ireland, Spain, Greece and Portugal as the collapse of their credit bubbles leads to rising defaults, or rescue Italy by accepting plans for EU "union bonds" should the debt markets take fright at the rocketing trajectory of Italy's public debt (hitting 112pc of GDP next year, just revised up from 101pc – big change), or rescue Austria from its Habsburg adventurism.

Onde é que foi parar a riqueza que os ricos deste mundo, tão abnegada e filantropicamente, nos últimos cinquenta anos, andaram a criar?

Ou será que os economistas, finalmente, conseguiram: do alambique financeiro, destilaram anti-matéria?...